Hello!

It's been a busy, busy November for my business, Dolly Outfitters. I have been sewing doll carriers non-stop and am currently listing my last batch for Christmas delivery.

This is my second year of awesome-ness (Is that a word?) at holiday time. Last year, I was busy all the way up to the shipping deadline and was very pleased. This month I will surpass the volume of both November and December of last year. WOWSERS!!!!

So, I am going to try to post on here more often. I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. I've buried myself in my sewing room, LOL! No - It's not that clean anymore either :(

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Scribblish Winner!

I almost forgot to announce the winner of the Scribblish! game winner from Halloween weekend.

The winner is: Deb Postma!

Congratulations! E-mail me your mailing address and I'll get you registered for your free Scribblish! game.

You can view a demonstration of how the game is played here.

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Halloween crafty-ness

For my second posting for the Halloween Party to win this awesome camera on the SITS girls blog is to show a craft you've made for the holiday. I have two crafts to share.

A few years ago, I made my daughter and another friend mermaid dresses to wear trick-or-treating together. I was really into making costumes and this was the third year in a row. I waited until the last minute so that the girls could put them on right after they got back from school. The skirts were too long. The girls had to hold them up to walk everywhere. One of them came back from trick-or-treating without a hem because it tore when she tripped on it. So, a word to the wise -- make sure to give yourself enough time to measure the proper length (or at least fix the length) of a skirt before it's use is needed. Sigh.


The second project is also a large glass of lemonade. I was going to make my husband this gorgeous Halloween scrub shirt for work. He likes to wear printed shirts at work and there aren't any masculine printed shirts at the scrub shop. This was the second scrub shirt I was making since starting my sewing classes.

I decided to save some class time and cut the pattern pieces ahead of time. When I got to sewing class and showed my instructor what I had done. She was both surprised and a little disappointed. I had perfectly cut the pattern just like I was supposed to with one little detail left out. I had cut all my pattern pieces from the fabric with the gorgeous print UPSIDE DOWN!

So, instead we decided to make this great drawstring candy bag. My daughter has used it to trick-or-treat every year since. Did you notice it in the photo of the girls above too?

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Last Halloween...

Monica was Ariel. This is a picture of her and a friend. They dressed alike for the Trunk 'N Treat held at the school's parking lot.



This year, she is excited to be another Princess, of course. I'll tell in another post!

This post is being linked to the SITS girls blog for an AWESOME giveaway prize. Join us and find out what it is!

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Do you play games?

This giveaway is now closed!

I have a fun holiday weekend giveaway to start today! My Blog Spark and Hasbro have teamed up to provide a lucky reader with the game Scribblish!



It's kind of a cross between the historic "telephone game" and pictionary. The players are each given a phrase to draw. Then, they switch drawing papers and have to guess the phrase based on the drawing from the person who handed them the paper. Then, they switch again, and the next round has to give a new phrase to the drawing. At the end, players vote on which final drawing and phrase was the one they started with and which one turned out to be the funniest transition from the original phrase.

I hope this makes sense. I'll post game play pictures after the long weekend so you can get a better understanding of what the game is about. If you want to enter to win your own Scribblish! game, just tell me in the comments what your favorite game was growing up or what your favorite game is now!



The fine print: Hasbro provided me with a free game, information, and the prize pack to the winner through MyBlogSpark.

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Water and Diet Coke don't taste the same!

I know. I know. We already knew that, right?

My taste buds have definitely been shell shocked because I took some of the greatly needed advice that you guys left me last week. Thank you all so much for your comments and suggestions.

I don't have Diet Coke in my house anymore. I had my last one last night.

I have only had ONE 12-pack since my last post on Wednesday.

I have been drinking more water in between my caffeinated beverages, coffee and diet coke - which I no longer own stock in, LOL!

I do have some coffee left. I have only been drinking about half a pot of that a day though.

My taste buds don't like water as much as diet coke.

On the bright side, I think I saved an extra roll of toilet paper over the weekend with my lessened intake of liquids.

What did you do this weekend?

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I'm an addict

It began as a light desire for what tasted good.

Yes, I admit that I just "liked" coffee and Diet Coke.



It's not such a problem when you have a regular schedule to keep and you can't have one of those two items on you at all times. You just enjoy it while you can.

That changes, though, when you don't keep a schedule and you are able to have one of those two with you at all times.

It starts off all innocent. Oh, I finished my last one? Better get another.

Then, it became a part of me. It went from being on the table next to me, to my hand, to an attachment on my purse that goes everywhere I do.



When I put it somewhere and I couldn't find it, I got another one out. When I finished that, I got another one out. When I found one I left somewhere and didn't know where it went, I combined it with the one I was currently drinking. (Notice the container size difference?)

It's a big joke when you finally realize just how much you consume. It doesn't affect you personally. And, it's a very socially acceptable addiction. After all, I'm not smoking or doing something really bad for me or anyone else.

It isn't a joke, though, when you realize that Diet Coke has become half of your grocery budget and you only buy it when it's on sale. You say to yourself, I should stop consuming so much of it, right?

So, I bought more coffee. After all, it's cheaper to make yourself.

I was talking with my husband recently. I asked him what I should do. He said, "You should just start weaning yourself off of it." Then, I asked him how I should go about doing that. He said, "You should just limit yourself to, like, one a day."

"Um, Honey, I don't know if you've really been paying attention to what I am telling you. But, when you (I can't believe I'm typing this!) consume a 12-pack a day, only having ONE is like going COLD TURKEY!"

What am I going to drink the rest of the day? I always have something with me. Stitch a seam. Take a drink. Stitch another. Take a drink. Make a blog post. Take a drink after each paragraph. Um, does anyone know how many paragraphs are in my blog posts? A lot. (And all you readers thought I just know that breaking up long posts is easier to read on a computer screen - insert scary, sarcastic laugh here.)

Have you noticed the tension I have in writing about this subject today? It's taken a lot of anxious energy to write this one, LOL! (Just count the number of paragraphs here.) A whole giant cup of coffee has been consumed already in the time I have written this. I am currently out of Diet Coke. Coffee is my back-up caffeine.

Yes, this is a real addiction. It has taken years of habit formation. I have real symptoms when I don't consume any for a few hours - really.

In light of the subject of my last post about eye twitching, I have decided that I need to do something about this addiction. I am starting to wonder if this addiction is part of the cause of my brain not being able to settle down at night to sleep. Although my sleeping issues started last year, for obvious reasons I hope, I can't help but wonder if the caffeine is compounding the problem. Both of these symptoms are causes of eye twitching - fatigue or lack of sleep and the over consumption of caffeine. I can't help but wonder - is this my wake up call?

I do have a doctor's appointment in early November and will be discussing this issue there as well.

Until then, I am asking you lovely readers, what would you do in this situation? How do I go about weaning my caffeine consumption? Do you know anyone who has been in this situation before?

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